Okay, so I hate to address a movie topic right off the bat, but Levi said that there were "aliens" in Indiana Jones? Yeeesh... I can see that George Lucas has tried to ruin another fine series with his grubby little hands. (Tell me the aliens weren´t a whole race of Jar Jar´s...) I´ll wait to pass judgement for now, but that might be a sad thought for me to know that Indy might take a fall like Star Wars.
So, this week had some nice low points. First off, everything that we have in our house is broken (the ironing board), breaking (the washing machine), or is in a state of somewhere in between (like the blender. It works, but smoke comes out of it when I use it.) So it´s only logical that something critical would break sooner or later. On Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday. Whatever day was Corpus Cristi), the key broke off in the lock as we were leaving the house. So we headed of to find a locksmith. I knew there was one down the street, but unfortunately because it was Corpus Cristi, (is that how you spell it?) most of the businesses had shut for the day. Elder C. had a baptismal interview to do later that evening, so we had to take care of it later in the day. Anyway, long story short, we managed to find a locksmith who came over and destroyed the lock for us at about 11 pm. Not the most exciting time.
In addition, I feel more like a hardcore missionary, as our little thingy that heats our shower water broke, so cold showers are now my thing. The water heater thing is electrical and attaches to the shower head, so if you mess with it it´ll give you a nice shock to wake up in the morning. But since it broke, I don´t have to worry about that anymore. Yay!
We´re still struggling to find good solid investigators. We worked in some areas this week that we don´t normally work in, but didn´t find much success. We got a couple references for a part of the area that I´ve never been too, waaaaaay at the edge of our area. It took almost 40 minutes to walk there, and I discovered that it´s actually the one rich part of our area. The houses are way nice, and that´s not just comparing it to the house that I live in, now. We worked a little around there, but as is always, the rich weren´t too receptive to the message. As we were heading out of that area, I picked a few of the biggest houses to knock at, to see if we could get people to listen. I´ve never seen doors slam so fast. Not much success with those who have the $$$.
So graduation is this week, huh? That´s nice to here that the theme for the senior all night party is Hawaiian, because that was the theme of mine. I kinda think that is the case with all the parties.
So Sis. Allred´s sister is in the same ward as Elder R.J´s parents, huh? That would mean they live in American Fork, right? That´s funny that you would hear about me thru someone else.
Also, this week in the grocery store they started selling juice of Acaí (that fruit that I like) with banana. I was excited till I saw that it was also mixed with Guaraná. (another fruit). Now I like guarana, but not with banana. But I was curious and bought it, and it turned out to be the worst thing that I´ve had. I feel that now I´ve sampled the highest highs with the Acaí/Banana/Milk combo, and the lowest lows with the Acaí/Banana/Guaraná-- I think that´s it for this week. I´ll keep plugging along here. ´till next time.
Excelsior!
-Elder “Acaí” Heperi
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
I am 20, going on 21
´sup kids?
First off, I´ve gotta say that being 20 doesn´t feel too much different from 19. In fact, I´d say that I´d rank it as the 2nd to last in terms of how different the age feels, 2nd only to age 17. Because at 16 you can drive, 18 you´re like an adult but with training wheels, 19 you´re mission aged, and at 21 the training wheels come off and your a full adult. But 17 and 20? Tsk tsk, the only thing that I can say is that I´m not a teenager anymore. Whoo!
So my new comp is Elder Cassio. He´s from Bela Horizante, and is a pretty cool guy. He´s pretty small (I think maybe two or three of him equals one of me), and pretty laid back, and actually we have a lot more in common than I thought. I think he knows how to play more tunes on the guitar than I do, and while we where at a members house eating, he played some Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes for us, which was very cool. He doesn´t speak a whole lot of English, and most of his vocabulary in English comes from the songs that he knows how to sing. So while he can´t really carry on a conversation very well in English, he could probably try and serenade a bunch of people if he went to the US. He was actually the comp. of my comp from the MTC, so we have some stuff to talk about there as well.
As for some bad parts, Elder RJ managed to leave everything that he shouldn´t have (his batteries, photos, letters, notebook) at our house, and took everything he shouldn´t have (list of members, less-actives, references) with him to Londrina. So, unfortunately, we´re having to start over as far as finding people.
This first week has been nothing but knocking doors, visiting the less actives that I remember, and me trying to remember all that I know about this area. It´s been hard, and actually pretty discouraging, but we´re working thru it. Elder C. arrived a little discouraged, first of all because of our house (small and dinky like it is, everyone gets sad when the come to our house, so I don´t blame him there), and second because Bauru is well known in the mission as the city that is quite difficult to work in, and is known to many missionaries as the city that you don´t wanna get transferred too. But I´ve learned to try and push thru it, even when we've been knocking doors for 4 hours at a time.
But, on the up side we got a very good internet reference about someone named Joice who wanted a Book of Mormon. When we delivered it, she was very excited to begin reading it and said that as soon as she figured out her work schedule, she´d try to make it to church. We´ve only had one visit with her so far, as she just moved here and is still quite busy, but I´d rank her as the best 1st visit we´ve ever had. My only concern is that her husband might object in some way. He was sleeping when we gave the lesson, so we didn´t get to meet him, and it´s happened a couple of times that we teach one member of the family, (only the wife or vice-versa) and then show up the next time and get a nice talking too about how they don´t need our religion, etc. etc. So, I´m hopeful that Joice´s husband will be accepting when we do meet him.
In other news, I bought my first box of cereal out in the mission, (Called “Little Stars”, kinda like coco-puffs) and it was heavenly. No one really eats cereal because it´s a little expensive, plus they only have about three kinds of cereal at the grocery store. (Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, and about 30 different brands of chocolate cereal. How I miss Trix...) So anyway, I ended up buying it and eating the whole box, it was THAT good! The only thing that I´m concerned with is the milk. Milk tastes quite different down here, and I think it´s because although they have a cool system where none of the milk has to be refrigerated until after it´s opened, all cartons have a thing that says they´ve been hit by gamma rays to make it that way. So while it´s cool that the milk will keep for a while, I´m a little worried that consuming it in great quantities will eventually turn me into the Hulk. We´ll see...
Mom and Dad, that´s nice to here that you guys have AC now. I´d like to say that I feel that blessed by it too, but that´ll be about a year and a half in the future.
I think that wraps it up for this week.
Thanks to the people who´s letter´s I finally got yesterday, (Grandma, Grandpa, Talisa, and Kamalei. Some had been floating around since March...) and I hope the USA is good.
Excelsior!
-Elder Heperi
First off, I´ve gotta say that being 20 doesn´t feel too much different from 19. In fact, I´d say that I´d rank it as the 2nd to last in terms of how different the age feels, 2nd only to age 17. Because at 16 you can drive, 18 you´re like an adult but with training wheels, 19 you´re mission aged, and at 21 the training wheels come off and your a full adult. But 17 and 20? Tsk tsk, the only thing that I can say is that I´m not a teenager anymore. Whoo!
So my new comp is Elder Cassio. He´s from Bela Horizante, and is a pretty cool guy. He´s pretty small (I think maybe two or three of him equals one of me), and pretty laid back, and actually we have a lot more in common than I thought. I think he knows how to play more tunes on the guitar than I do, and while we where at a members house eating, he played some Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes for us, which was very cool. He doesn´t speak a whole lot of English, and most of his vocabulary in English comes from the songs that he knows how to sing. So while he can´t really carry on a conversation very well in English, he could probably try and serenade a bunch of people if he went to the US. He was actually the comp. of my comp from the MTC, so we have some stuff to talk about there as well.
As for some bad parts, Elder RJ managed to leave everything that he shouldn´t have (his batteries, photos, letters, notebook) at our house, and took everything he shouldn´t have (list of members, less-actives, references) with him to Londrina. So, unfortunately, we´re having to start over as far as finding people.
This first week has been nothing but knocking doors, visiting the less actives that I remember, and me trying to remember all that I know about this area. It´s been hard, and actually pretty discouraging, but we´re working thru it. Elder C. arrived a little discouraged, first of all because of our house (small and dinky like it is, everyone gets sad when the come to our house, so I don´t blame him there), and second because Bauru is well known in the mission as the city that is quite difficult to work in, and is known to many missionaries as the city that you don´t wanna get transferred too. But I´ve learned to try and push thru it, even when we've been knocking doors for 4 hours at a time.
But, on the up side we got a very good internet reference about someone named Joice who wanted a Book of Mormon. When we delivered it, she was very excited to begin reading it and said that as soon as she figured out her work schedule, she´d try to make it to church. We´ve only had one visit with her so far, as she just moved here and is still quite busy, but I´d rank her as the best 1st visit we´ve ever had. My only concern is that her husband might object in some way. He was sleeping when we gave the lesson, so we didn´t get to meet him, and it´s happened a couple of times that we teach one member of the family, (only the wife or vice-versa) and then show up the next time and get a nice talking too about how they don´t need our religion, etc. etc. So, I´m hopeful that Joice´s husband will be accepting when we do meet him.
In other news, I bought my first box of cereal out in the mission, (Called “Little Stars”, kinda like coco-puffs) and it was heavenly. No one really eats cereal because it´s a little expensive, plus they only have about three kinds of cereal at the grocery store. (Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, and about 30 different brands of chocolate cereal. How I miss Trix...) So anyway, I ended up buying it and eating the whole box, it was THAT good! The only thing that I´m concerned with is the milk. Milk tastes quite different down here, and I think it´s because although they have a cool system where none of the milk has to be refrigerated until after it´s opened, all cartons have a thing that says they´ve been hit by gamma rays to make it that way. So while it´s cool that the milk will keep for a while, I´m a little worried that consuming it in great quantities will eventually turn me into the Hulk. We´ll see...
Mom and Dad, that´s nice to here that you guys have AC now. I´d like to say that I feel that blessed by it too, but that´ll be about a year and a half in the future.
I think that wraps it up for this week.
Thanks to the people who´s letter´s I finally got yesterday, (Grandma, Grandpa, Talisa, and Kamalei. Some had been floating around since March...) and I hope the USA is good.
Excelsior!
-Elder Heperi
Friday, May 16, 2008
It won´t smell like teen spirit anymore...
Happy "20th" Birthday to Luke.
At least for me. As of right now (email received May 14, 2008), I´ve got less than 48 hrs. to get all that teenage angst out of me. Here´s hoping that I can do it.
Yeah, that phone call was good. I appreciated hearing from you guys. (On a side note, everybody´s voice sounded like I remember, except Lauren sounded older).
Oh yeah, turns out I didn´t get transferred. Há, I will officially spend 6 months in my first area. Elder Johnson left this morning, and my new comp is Elder Cassio. (Isn´t that a brand of guitar?) I haven´t met him yet, but he should be showing up in about an hour an a half. He´s going to be the district leader, like my trainer Elder Moraes was, which means that we can use our cell phone to call people instead of having to leave the house early in the morning every time we need to call someone! (All the cell phones are blocked so that you can only call Pres. and Sis Leal and your District leader. But Zone leaders and DL´s know the code, so hallelujah!)
Sometimes Elders go a little stir crazy being in the same area for a long time. The Elder that was last in this area here for 6 months was itching to get out, so I hope that I don´t get like that. I like my area, and as dinky as my house is, it kinda feels like home now (sorta of).
As far as the work goes, we baptized Graz... on Tues. (Elder Johnson did it.) She accepted our invite on Saturday and really wanted to get baptized before Elder Johnson left. So we called the bishop and arranged the baptism earlier. It was way cool, and now her whole family are members since she got baptized. I´m glad that we found her.
As for Pat..., she showed up to the baptism and really enjoyed it. We extended the invite to her, but she said that although she doesn´t doubt that the message is true, she still doesn´t feel prepared to get baptized. I don´t doubt that in the end she´ll get baptized... I just hope that she decides to do it before this next transfer ends. (She´s got 6 weeks, that´s plenty of time, right?)
This past week, Elder Johnson introduced me to what may be the best thing I´ve ever had. We were eating at a little hamburger/juice place, when he suggested that I order a certain type of juice/smoothy-thingy. It was Banana, Milk, and one other fruit that I´ve never heard of and don´t know the name of it in English or how to spell it in Portuguese, but it´s pronounced “Ah-sigh-eed”. From the picture, it kinda resembles a blue raspberry. Anyway, I ordered it, and it beats the heck out of any Jamba Juice or anything that I´ve ever had. (On a side note, it kinda reminded me of that shake thingy that you used to make, Mom. Remember “Purple Cow”?). To sum it up, I think I´m in love with that little blue fruit.
Well, I think that´s it. Till next week.
Excelsior!
-Elder “still in his first area” Heperi
P.S.
Happy birthday to that skinny blond boy who wins those beauty contests and who is older than me by only 6 hrs, Mat6t Karlsven. I hope you do everything on Friday that I can´t.
P.P.S.
Video Below: (Tracting in Awarua... I mean Bauru, Brazil.)
At least for me. As of right now (email received May 14, 2008), I´ve got less than 48 hrs. to get all that teenage angst out of me. Here´s hoping that I can do it.
Yeah, that phone call was good. I appreciated hearing from you guys. (On a side note, everybody´s voice sounded like I remember, except Lauren sounded older).
Oh yeah, turns out I didn´t get transferred. Há, I will officially spend 6 months in my first area. Elder Johnson left this morning, and my new comp is Elder Cassio. (Isn´t that a brand of guitar?) I haven´t met him yet, but he should be showing up in about an hour an a half. He´s going to be the district leader, like my trainer Elder Moraes was, which means that we can use our cell phone to call people instead of having to leave the house early in the morning every time we need to call someone! (All the cell phones are blocked so that you can only call Pres. and Sis Leal and your District leader. But Zone leaders and DL´s know the code, so hallelujah!)
Sometimes Elders go a little stir crazy being in the same area for a long time. The Elder that was last in this area here for 6 months was itching to get out, so I hope that I don´t get like that. I like my area, and as dinky as my house is, it kinda feels like home now (sorta of).
As far as the work goes, we baptized Graz... on Tues. (Elder Johnson did it.) She accepted our invite on Saturday and really wanted to get baptized before Elder Johnson left. So we called the bishop and arranged the baptism earlier. It was way cool, and now her whole family are members since she got baptized. I´m glad that we found her.
As for Pat..., she showed up to the baptism and really enjoyed it. We extended the invite to her, but she said that although she doesn´t doubt that the message is true, she still doesn´t feel prepared to get baptized. I don´t doubt that in the end she´ll get baptized... I just hope that she decides to do it before this next transfer ends. (She´s got 6 weeks, that´s plenty of time, right?)
This past week, Elder Johnson introduced me to what may be the best thing I´ve ever had. We were eating at a little hamburger/juice place, when he suggested that I order a certain type of juice/smoothy-thingy. It was Banana, Milk, and one other fruit that I´ve never heard of and don´t know the name of it in English or how to spell it in Portuguese, but it´s pronounced “Ah-sigh-eed”. From the picture, it kinda resembles a blue raspberry. Anyway, I ordered it, and it beats the heck out of any Jamba Juice or anything that I´ve ever had. (On a side note, it kinda reminded me of that shake thingy that you used to make, Mom. Remember “Purple Cow”?). To sum it up, I think I´m in love with that little blue fruit.
Well, I think that´s it. Till next week.
Excelsior!
-Elder “still in his first area” Heperi
P.S.
Happy birthday to that skinny blond boy who wins those beauty contests and who is older than me by only 6 hrs, Mat6t Karlsven. I hope you do everything on Friday that I can´t.
P.P.S.
Video Below: (Tracting in Awarua... I mean Bauru, Brazil.)
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Happy 6 Months to me...
Time passes fast. I've learned it´s true that the days here sometimes seem like they drag on forever, (especially when you lose many investigators in one day, more on that later) but the weeks go by fast. I really can´t believe that as of today, I have 6 months in the mission.
Hey, good to hear that the orange envelope arrived safely with the pics. I hope they´re good. Just out of curiosity, do the videos have sound on them? I know that my camera doesn´t play back sound, but I was wondering if it captures sound and plays it back.
This week was exciting. This is the last week in the transfer, which is usually cool because everyone is always wondering what will happen with the transfer. I actually don´t wanna leave my area, because we have a couple investigators that are REALLY close to baptism. Patricia, for example, I think just needs to have the invitation extended to be baptized. We´re gonna do that next time. (On a funny side note, she´s really excited to eventually get a Patriarchal Blessing, so that´s a good sign for baptism). And this week we´ve been teaching a girl named Grazieli. Her whole family just got baptized in September, but she wasn´t because she works and studies a lot, so she was never there to hear the discussions. She doesn´t have a religion currently (kind of a rare thing in my experience here so far. Everyone always says that they´re something even if they don´t attend), and has been coming to sacrament meeting the last two weeks. I think that she´ll definitely get baptized, I just hope that I´ll be around to see it.
Like mentioned earlier with losing investigators, we lost some that I thought really had a good chance of progressing until baptism. We found them just by knocking doors, and older couple. At first they were kinda reluctant to let us in, (especially the husband) but they eventually decided to hear the message. They seemed to really understand the message, and why a Restoration was necessary (a rare thing as well, in my experience. Most people that we teach for the first time don´t quite grasp the significance of the message), and said that they´d definitely pray about it. We were feeling pretty good about it... until we tried to mark another visit and they said that they were going out of town for 5 weeks. Now, it´s never good to leave an investigator for that long of a time, but we had no choice. So yesterday we went back to visit, and the husband saw us and immediately went inside and came out with the Book of Mormon and pamphlet that we gave him. That´s never a good sign, and it was obvious that he didn´t want to hear more. He gave us the materials, and said "Looks boys, if I want to learn about Jesus, I´ll read the Bible." We explained that that was good, and that our message wasn´t one that was competing with the Bible, but then he gave an explanation that I couldn´t understand. I understood something about a mind being like a computer, but beyond that he was using words that I didn´t know. I figured it was just me, but then Elder RJ said that he couldn´t understand what he was saying either. We bore our testimonies to him to close, and he responded by saying (and I always hate this when we get this comment from old men) "Boys, you´re still very young and have a lot to learn. You should study the Bible more so that you can know what you´re talking about...etc, etc" That´s always massively irritating to hear that from people who tell us we don´t know stuff just because we´re young.
As we were walking away, I was thumbing thru the Book of Mormon that he gave back to see if he had read any. We usually mark the Introduction, 3rd Nephi 12, and Moroni 10:3-5 for people to get acquainted with the book. We usually fold the pages over to help them remember. I noticed that the Intro and Moroni where still folded, but that 3rd Nephi was unfolded and looked like it had been read. I opened it, and out fell a pamphlet from, (betcha can´t guess who) The JW's. I read the pamphlet a bit, and it seemed to contain kinda what the guy had told us. That the Bible contains the word of God, read the Bible to know God. I showed it to Elder RJ, and he was like "Ah, THERE´S the reason."
So here´s what I learned: The combination of long intervals in between visits + a visit from the JW's = No longer an investigator. Simple math.
Well, that´s it for this edition. I´ll talk to you guys soon I guess, provided we can find a decent phone to talk from. (The bishop won´t let us use his office, which is funny cuz most of the Elders I´ve talked to here usually say that that´s the place that it´s normally done in. Maybe he´ll let up...we´ll see.)
Feliz dia das maes pra todo mundo! (Happy mother´s day for everyone.)
Excelsior!
-Elderus Heperiusno
Not much else from me. Hope you guys are good, and I´ll have the info for you guys Sat. Talk to you soon!
Hey, good to hear that the orange envelope arrived safely with the pics. I hope they´re good. Just out of curiosity, do the videos have sound on them? I know that my camera doesn´t play back sound, but I was wondering if it captures sound and plays it back.
This week was exciting. This is the last week in the transfer, which is usually cool because everyone is always wondering what will happen with the transfer. I actually don´t wanna leave my area, because we have a couple investigators that are REALLY close to baptism. Patricia, for example, I think just needs to have the invitation extended to be baptized. We´re gonna do that next time. (On a funny side note, she´s really excited to eventually get a Patriarchal Blessing, so that´s a good sign for baptism). And this week we´ve been teaching a girl named Grazieli. Her whole family just got baptized in September, but she wasn´t because she works and studies a lot, so she was never there to hear the discussions. She doesn´t have a religion currently (kind of a rare thing in my experience here so far. Everyone always says that they´re something even if they don´t attend), and has been coming to sacrament meeting the last two weeks. I think that she´ll definitely get baptized, I just hope that I´ll be around to see it.
Like mentioned earlier with losing investigators, we lost some that I thought really had a good chance of progressing until baptism. We found them just by knocking doors, and older couple. At first they were kinda reluctant to let us in, (especially the husband) but they eventually decided to hear the message. They seemed to really understand the message, and why a Restoration was necessary (a rare thing as well, in my experience. Most people that we teach for the first time don´t quite grasp the significance of the message), and said that they´d definitely pray about it. We were feeling pretty good about it... until we tried to mark another visit and they said that they were going out of town for 5 weeks. Now, it´s never good to leave an investigator for that long of a time, but we had no choice. So yesterday we went back to visit, and the husband saw us and immediately went inside and came out with the Book of Mormon and pamphlet that we gave him. That´s never a good sign, and it was obvious that he didn´t want to hear more. He gave us the materials, and said "Looks boys, if I want to learn about Jesus, I´ll read the Bible." We explained that that was good, and that our message wasn´t one that was competing with the Bible, but then he gave an explanation that I couldn´t understand. I understood something about a mind being like a computer, but beyond that he was using words that I didn´t know. I figured it was just me, but then Elder RJ said that he couldn´t understand what he was saying either. We bore our testimonies to him to close, and he responded by saying (and I always hate this when we get this comment from old men) "Boys, you´re still very young and have a lot to learn. You should study the Bible more so that you can know what you´re talking about...etc, etc" That´s always massively irritating to hear that from people who tell us we don´t know stuff just because we´re young.
As we were walking away, I was thumbing thru the Book of Mormon that he gave back to see if he had read any. We usually mark the Introduction, 3rd Nephi 12, and Moroni 10:3-5 for people to get acquainted with the book. We usually fold the pages over to help them remember. I noticed that the Intro and Moroni where still folded, but that 3rd Nephi was unfolded and looked like it had been read. I opened it, and out fell a pamphlet from, (betcha can´t guess who) The JW's. I read the pamphlet a bit, and it seemed to contain kinda what the guy had told us. That the Bible contains the word of God, read the Bible to know God. I showed it to Elder RJ, and he was like "Ah, THERE´S the reason."
So here´s what I learned: The combination of long intervals in between visits + a visit from the JW's = No longer an investigator. Simple math.
Well, that´s it for this edition. I´ll talk to you guys soon I guess, provided we can find a decent phone to talk from. (The bishop won´t let us use his office, which is funny cuz most of the Elders I´ve talked to here usually say that that´s the place that it´s normally done in. Maybe he´ll let up...we´ll see.)
Feliz dia das maes pra todo mundo! (Happy mother´s day for everyone.)
Excelsior!
-Elderus Heperiusno
Not much else from me. Hope you guys are good, and I´ll have the info for you guys Sat. Talk to you soon!
Photos (Click on photos to enlarge)
Elder Luke...
Luke playing Spiderman on P-Day at the farm. 
Luke and a local members little boy.
Visiting the farm on P-Day.
Luke and 3rd Companion, Elder Johnson.
Luke wearing his favorite soccer team shirt, The Corinthians.
Apartment in Bauru: Bedroom
Fridge in the apartment, Bauru.
Gate outside the apartment.
Zone P-day at the Zoo in Bauru.
P-Day at the Zoo in Bauru.
Luke and ???
Elder Moraes, 2nd companion, and Luke.
(As below)
(As below)
The track home to the apartment.
Outside the apartment, Bauru.
Luke and fellow missionary, P-Day.
Luke.
Elder Moraes and other members of the District.
(As below)
(As below)
Parrot
Tracting in Bauru.
Apartment in Bauru
Apartment in Bauru: Bedroom/Closet
Apartment in Bauru: Kitchen/Bedroom
Apartment in Bauru: Kitchen
Apartment in Bauru: Stove
Favorite MTC Teacher.
(As below)
Fellow missionary in MTC. 
1st Companion, Elder Hanratty
Fellow missionary, Elder Monterossa, in the MTC.
(As below)
A view from his MTC room in Sao Paulo.
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